HomeSupportUSB Device Missing in NI-MAX but Is Present in Windows Device Manager

USB Device Missing in NI-MAX but Is Present in Windows Device Manager

Updated Feb 19, 2019

Reported In

Reported In shows products that are verified to work for the solution described in this article. This solution might also apply to other similar products or applications.

Software

Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX)

LabVIEW

Driver

NI-VISA

Issue Details

I can't see my USB Instrument listed in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX), but it is present as a USB Instrument in Windows Device Manager. Why am I seeing this behavior and how can I fix it so I can communicate with my instrument?

I can't see my USB devices in NI-MAX, but I can communicate with them through the command line so I know they are connected. What do I need to do to be able to see my devices in NI-MAX?

Solution

Check if you have the NI-VISA driver installed on your computer. If not, visit the VISA downloads page on NI.com and download and install your appropriate driver.

Depending on your processor architecture, the folder named i386 may be named differently. The second file path may contain \b841aa80\windows\ inbetween the IVI USB Staging and processor folders

Select Next and Finish to complete the driver update

Go to MAX and refresh the window to look for the USB device.

If the above steps don't work, another thing to consider is that ausbtmc.sys is part of the IVI VISA Shared Components, which is maintained by the IVI Foundation. You can download the IVI VISA Shared Components directly from the IVI Foundations Page.

If this still doesn't work, the problem is likely still the non association of driver type (USB test and measurements device (IVI)) to our device, so:

In the case that the previous steps do not work, try to uninstall the driver on Windows Device Manager, restart the computer and reassociate the USB device following the above steps.

Now your device should be correctly associated.

Additional Information

If the device shows up in Device Manager, it means that the Windows Machine recognizes the USB device and has associated a specific driver to communicate with the device. One possible reason this instrument doesn't show up in MAX is that Windows isn't associating the correct driver with the device. Some vendors include a specific device driver for their instrument, so when Windows sees that particular instrument it associates that vendor specific driver with the instrument. MAX however, uses the ausbtmc.sys driver to communicate with USB devices.